Skybox Imaging, the satellite firm recently acquired by Google, has signed with Arianespace to fly four of its satellites on a Vega launch in 2016. The first launch to take place in July 2016 from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, will be shared with another payload (later confirmed to be PeruSat-1). The flight will carry four Skybox satellites built by Space Systems/Loral. While relatively expensive to procure, Vega is rapidly gaining a reputation for reliability with for successful orbital and suborbital flights to date.
A second flight of six Skybox satellites is due to be launched in September 2016, with two more launches carrying six Skybox satellites a piece likely to fly in 2017. The identity of the launch vehicles for these flights has not been revealed but Skybox was already due to launch six satellites on a Minotaur C and this seems likely to be the first flight after Vega.
Skybox has other launch vehicles in the running to launch its satellites including Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne which the launch provider plans to start operating in 2016.
